Cobb pharmacist tries fleeing the country after being found guilty of running pill mill

WSBTV.com News Staff
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Cobb pharmacist tries fleeing the country after being found guilty of running pill mill

A Cobb County pharmacist has been sentenced to prison after being convicted of running an illegal pill mill and then trying to flee the country.

Thomas Ukoshovbera A. Gbenedio, 72, was the owner of Better Way Pharmacy in Mableton.

Prosecutors say Georgia Drug and Narcotics Agency agents conducted an inspection at Gbenedio’s pharmacy and noticed that several customers were traveling long distances, from places like Kentucky and Alabama, to get prescriptions for highly addictive opioids, like oxycodone, from the same physician.

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Investigators learned that between 2014 and 2016, several prescriptions Gbenedio was filling were not real. He was charging customers up to $1,000 to fill the illegal prescriptions.

After a two-week trial, a Cobb County jury convicted Gbenedio of 70 counts of illegally dispensing and distributing controlled substances and one count of refusing an administrative inspection warrant.

After the jury announced its verdict in October 2021, Gbenedio was ordered to report to probation for location monitoring, but instead tried to leave the country. U.S. Marshals arrested him at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

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After being captured, he was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison. Once he finishes his prison sentence, he will serve three years of supervised release.

Gbenedio was also ordered to pay a $200,000 fine.

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